Cody McGrath 
Binance will start giving its U.S. customers an annual percentage yield (APY) of 6% on amounts as low as 0.001 ETH.
The cryptocurrency exchange Binance is adding staking for ether (ETH) in the U.S. This comes before the “Merge” of Ethereum.
Binance will start giving its U.S. customers a 6% annual percentage yield (APY) for as little as 0.001 ETH ($1.51), the exchange said Wednesday.
When people stake, they lock up their digital assets to help proof-of-stake (PoS) networks run.
The Merge is when Ethereum will switch from a proof-of-work (PoW) network to a proof-of-stake (PoS) network. This is expected to happen between September 13 and 15. The hope is that moving away from the energy-intensive PoW mechanism will make Ethereum more efficient and scalable, as well as make it more appealing to the general public.
Binance started staking for U.S. customers in June and now supports tokens from blockchains like Cardano (ADA), Polkadot (DOT), and Polygon (MATIC), among others. At the time, Binance.US CEO Brian Shroder said the goal was to beat the APYs that competitors like Coinbase (COIN) and Gemini offered for staking.
The crypto exchange company may be behind the decision to add support for Ethereum now.
The US thinks that ETH will be a major battleground for staking in the coming months.